Vase thumbnail 1
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
China, Room 44, The T.T. Tsui Gallery

Vase

1980 (dated)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Vase of slender meiping form, decorated by hand in underglaze blue. On one side is seen a gentleman with a crook and sheep, watching a light of birds in the sky. On the reverse is the inscription: "Su wu herding sheep, painted by Xin Qingshan in the genshen year (1980)".

Su Wu is praised as an example of unchanging loyalty. He was Chamberlain to the Han emperor Wudi, who sent him on a mission to the ruler of the Xiongnu in 100 BC. After trying to kill a Chinese traitor there, Su Wu was exiled to the deserts round Lake Balkash where he tended Xiongnu flocks for 19 years. During this time, he clung steadfastly to his official sceptre as a symbol of his unswerving fidelity to the emperor, and used it as his shepherd's crook. At length he returned in honour to China as an old man, with his Xiongnu wife and son.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Porcelain painted in underglaze blue
Brief description
Vase, porcelain painted in underglaze blue with Su Wu herding sheep; painted by Xin Qingshan, China (Jingdezhen), dated 1980
Physical description
Vase of slender meiping form, decorated by hand in underglaze blue. On one side is seen a gentleman with a crook and sheep, watching a light of birds in the sky. On the reverse is the inscription: "Su wu herding sheep, painted by Xin Qingshan in the genshen year (1980)".

Su Wu is praised as an example of unchanging loyalty. He was Chamberlain to the Han emperor Wudi, who sent him on a mission to the ruler of the Xiongnu in 100 BC. After trying to kill a Chinese traitor there, Su Wu was exiled to the deserts round Lake Balkash where he tended Xiongnu flocks for 19 years. During this time, he clung steadfastly to his official sceptre as a symbol of his unswerving fidelity to the emperor, and used it as his shepherd's crook. At length he returned in honour to China as an old man, with his Xiongnu wife and son.
Dimensions
  • Height: 28cm
  • Base diameter: 7.3cm
Style
Marks and inscriptions
  • 'su wu mu yang geng shen nian zuo Xin Qingshan hua' (Inscription on the reverse of the decoration)
    Translation
    Su wu herding sheep, painted by Xin Qingshan in the genshen year (1980)
  • (Sealmark in underglaze blue on the base)
    Translation
    'made at Jingdezhen'
Credit line
Given by Mr Simon Kwan
Production
Register
Subjects depicted
Bibliographic reference
Mayers, William Frederick, The Chinese reader's manual; a handbook of biographical, historical, mythological, and general literary reference. Taipei: Literature House, 1964, p. 192.
Collection
Accession number
FE.53-1990

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Record createdJune 25, 2009
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